AWI Quarterly » 2011 Spring

The number of beef and dairy cattle exported from the U.S. in 2010 to countries other than Canada and Mexico more than quadrupled over the previous year. Live animal exports are up dramatically, especially cattle, as countries like Turkey and Kazakhstan try to establish breeding herds.

Rabbits can be affectionate companions. They are not, however, naturally predisposed to feel at ease around humans. In a laboratory setting, in particular, being approached and subsequently scruffed by an unfamiliar human is likely to induce fear and stress responses - and possibly skew research data.

In January, the City Council of Arcadia, California voted unanimously to cancel a contract with a private wildlife removal firm to snare and kill coyotes within the city. Public outcry against the contract - which cost the city $30,000 a year and resulted in the death of 20 coyotes - prompted the council to hold a special "study session" and, ultimately, to terminate the program.

The owner of an Atlanta piano import/export company was sentenced in March for illegally smuggling internationally protected elephant ivory into the U.S. Pascal Vieillard and his company, A-440 Pianos, were each ordered to pay $17,500 and given three years probation, with the condition that all imports by the company will be monitored for the duration of the sentence.

A major spill of heavy fuel oil from a wrecked freighter has fouled the waters surrounding one of the world’s most important bird nesting sites on a remote South Atlantic island. On March 16, the Oliva, a Maltese-registered cargo vessel carrying a load of soybeans from Brazil to the Philippines, ran aground and sank off Nightingale Island.

The Zimbabwe National Wildlife Authority, in March, auctioned off sport hunting packages for big game to local and foreign hunters. The packages include rights to kill elephants, lions, hippos and leopards.

The Animal Damage Control Act (ADC Act) was signed into law in 1931. The 80th anniversary of its passage this past March was hardly a cause for celebration; rather, it is an anniversary of mourning for each one of the millions of coyotes, foxes, wolves, bears, mountain lions, bobcats, badgers, Canada geese, cormorants, black birds and other animals labeled as "pests" who have been killed since this Act came into force.

Her parents told her that they noticed it about her when she was quite young - around four years old. They characterized their observation this way: "We should have bought you a soap box." Some would call her opinionated, or even stubborn. Luckily, the times changed and these kinds of people became known as "activists."

The Elephant in the Living Room is a compelling documentary that examines the little-known yet widespread problem of exotic pet ownership in the U.S. - in particular the practice of making pets out of dangerous wild animals such as lions, tigers, elephants, bears and venomous snakes.

Animal behavior expert Marc Bekoff, in partnership with Jane Goodall's Roots & Shoots program and the Children, Youth and Environments Center at the University of Colorado Denver, has produced a colorful new online book in which young children express how they feel about animals and the natural world.